


A Court of Beanies and Ponytails

by miss_eee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: ACOTAR - Freeform, Christmas Fluff, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 05:00:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17176370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_eee/pseuds/miss_eee
Summary: A Bughead Secret Santa gift to the wonderful @laurelins- who posted an amazing ACOTAR aesthetic while I was stalking her blog, and who I hold entirely responsible for the series consuming my life for the last two weeks. If you've ever discovered a new book or series (or even fic) and binged the entire thing in one sitting, you completely understand the lack of motivation to do anything else that has taken over my life.Merry Christmas, my dear! And thank you for unknowingly giving me a gift of a wonderful series!





	A Court of Beanies and Ponytails

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laurelins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurelins/gifts).



The room was lit only by the white lights of the Christmas tree, sparkles of red and green dancing around the room. After a full, busy day of Christmas shopping and wrapping presents, Betty Cooper was thankful to be back in the peace and quiet of the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Jughead Jones. Tomorrow morning would bring cookie baking and more wrapping, before Christmas dinner at her mother’s in the evening, but now, she just wanted to sleep. 

 

“Come on, Betts, you can’t fall asleep yet - it’s a tradition.” If someone had told her years ago, that her boyfriend was a stickler for Holiday traditions, she never would have believed them. In all the years that they’d been together, in high school in Riverdale and then through college in New York City, there was one Christmas tradition that Jughead insisted they keep.

 

The opening of one Christmas present on Christmas Eve. 

 

She glanced up through half-lidded eyes as he came towards her, carrying a perfectly wrapped gold box with a large gold bow on top. She curled her legs up underneath him, reaching for the present in his hands, and directed him towards a small rectangular package under the tree. 

 

“Merry Christmas, Juggie.” She leaned up to kiss his cheek, as she turned the gold present over in her hands. She had an idea what it was, their tradition also included the present they open on Christmas Eve always being a book, but this felt heavier than the cookbooks she’d sent him as ideas. She tugged and pulled on the wrapping paper, revealing a beautiful red boxed set covered in viney, thorned detailing. She ran her fingers across the embossed title,  _ A Court of Thorns and Roses _ . “Jug- what is this?”

 

“Honestly Betts, I’m not entirely sure. It got good reviews on Amazon, and the series has been compared as a cross between  _ Beauty and the Beast  _ and  _ Game of Thrones _ . I thought it’d be a nice break from all those English Lit requirements.”

 

That was true. Betty was in her first semester of graduate school, studying English Literature, and it was taking everything she had. Her days and nights were spent reading and preparing papers, and the thought of having something to read in her free time that wasn’t required reading was actually exciting. 

 

“They’re gorgeous, Jug.” She pulled each individual hardcover book from the red box, taking in the beautiful twisting designs on the cover, the intricateness of the gown on each, worn by who she perceived the be the heroine after reading the back cover. Her excitement grew as she took in the summary, something about wolves and magical lands and fairies. 

 

She opened the first book, reveling in the  _ crack _ as the binding broke, that fresh paper smell that comes along with new books. She reached for the blanket, pulling it up over her legs and settling back against the couch, intending to only read the first chapter before going to bed. Jughead leaned down, kissing her forehead, whispering to her to “ _ not stay up all night _ ” before he softly stepped down the hallway towards their bedroom. 

 

_ Only one chapter.  _

  
  
  


She wasn’t sure at what time she realized she was in too deep. Maybe it was around 2 in the morning when she made her third cup of coffee, or maybe it was when the sun came up and she wasn’t anywhere near a stopping point. Or maybe it was when she heard the alarm buzz from down the hallway, followed a few moments later by Jughead stepping into the living room, rubbing the at the sleep in his eyes. 

 

“Betty? Did you stay up all night?”

 

“Oh, Juggie! It’s so beautiful… the magic and the fairies, the romance and the angst. It’s perfect…” She wasn’t entirely aware of how fast she was talking, the way her words all ran together into one until Jughead settled down on the couch beside her, pulling her feet up into her lap. 

 

“You need to take a break. We’ve got to get started on cookie baking and we’ve got to be to your mom’s by 5.”

 

“There’s plenty of time, Jug. I’ve only got - 20 pages left. You go shower, I’ll finish this book, and then we can get started on cookies.”

 

“Half hour, Betts. Gotta get these cookies done before you crash after staying up all night.”

  
  


Her heart was smiling as she entered the kitchen, freshly showered after finishing the first book.  _ A Court of Mist and Fury  _ was sitting there, taunting her, but she knew Jughead was right. She had to get the cookies finished before she crashed, the second book would be there after they got back from her mothers.

 

It was hard, rolling the dough for snickerdoodles around the in the cinnamon, mixing the chocolate chip cookies. Her mind wasn’t on baking - it was on Feyre and Tamlin and Prythian. 

 

The rest of the day passed in a blur of last-minute wrapping presents and preparing everything to take to her mother’s - there wasn’t time to read a single chapter or to take a nap. 

  
  


Christmas day passed in a blur of too much caffeine and not enough sleep, but she was thankful to be surrounded by her family. They’d missed a lot of the twins growing up when they’d been in NYC for college, and it was nice to be back home and a bigger part of their lives. They were almost 5 now, Juniper into all things pink and glittered, Dagwood into all things that clattered and made noise. 

 

It was well after 11 when they were finally back at their apartment, now well over 24 hours since she’d last slept. But it was there,  _ Mist and Fury _ , calling to her, and she knew she needed to read it, even just a chapter. 

 

_ Just one chapter.  _

  
  


Sometime in the night, around Chapter 15, she’d finally fallen asleep,  _ Mist and Fury _ tucked next to her on the couch. Her dreams were only of magic and fairies and Feyre and Tamlin, but a certain dark-haired fairy with wings like a bat kept reappearing. She woke to the sun shining in through the curtains, sparkling off the snow that had fallen the night before. 

 

There were things to do today, and it felt good to have finally gotten some sleep, so she instantly began cleaning the kitchen before moving to the bathroom. She was putting laundry away in the bedroom dresser when Jughead woke, and she realized in her “new book induced haze” she’d slept on the couch the last two nights. 

 

She crawled into the bed next to him later that evening, wrapping his arm around her waist. Almost instantly, she found herself falling back to sleep, relaxing into that comfort that came with being in his arms. 

  
  


She tried, she really did. But she woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom, still craving more of  _ Mist and Fury _ , and soon found herself settled back into that spot on the couch, this time setting a timer on her phone for an hour.  _ Only an hour, _ she told herself, and then she would go back to bed. 

 

_ Only an hour. _

  
  


She woke the next morning, to Jughead gently moving her feet, and realized she had once again fallen asleep on the couch. 

 

That routine continued for the next week - attempting to go to bed, waking up in the middle of the night, and reading on the couch until she fell asleep. Outside of her humanly responsibilities, all of her time was devoted to reading the books, relying solely on coffee to keep her awake. 

  
  
  


By New Year's Eve, she’d finished  _ A Court of Wings and Ruin _ , the third and final installment of the series. It’d taken her longer than the others, and by longer than the others, she meant more than two days to finish. 

 

Archie, Veronica and Kevin came over to the apartment to celebrate New Years, and it was late when her and Jughead were picking up the remnants of the party. She didn’t like to leave a mess for the morning, it was always much nicer to wake up hungover to a clean house and a messy one. 

 

After helping her pick up the apartment, Jughead had settled into a spot on the couch, wrapping his legs up around a blanket. She sat down at the other end, her head flopping back in exhaustion. She glanced over at her boyfriend, who was turning over in his hand  _ A Court of Thorns and Roses,  _ and she couldn't help but crack a half smile at him. All week he'd teased her about how obsessively she'd read through the series, barely taking breaks to eat or sleep. 

 

“I'm just going to read the first chapter and then I'll go to bed. I've got to see what all this hype is about…”

 

She rolled her eyes at him and moved to kiss his cheek. “See you in the morning, Jug.”

  
  


Sure enough, the next morning when she woke she was all alone in their bed. She grabbed one of his flannels from the closet, wrapping it around her to guard against the chill as she stepped quietly down the hallway. 

 

He was still there, in the same spot on the couch, sleeping peacefully, the book tucked into his side. 

 

She moved closer to him, not wanting to wake him up, but he muttered something that made her stop. 

 

“What was that, Jug?”

 

“But she loves Tamlin…” She realized then that he was still sleeping, debating internally the plots of the book. 

 

“Oh, Jug,” she whispered as she ran her hands through his dark hair, “wait until you read the second book…”

 


End file.
